It's a public secret that there are many people with complaints about Mac OS X's Finder. It lacks several features common to other file managers, and on top of that, it has several issues with dealing with some types of network shares (SAMBA, specifically). While third parties can't fix the bugs, they can extend the Finder's feature set. TotalFinder is a collection of Finder extensions that tries to bring some of Google Chrome's interface ideas to the Finder. BinaryAge was kind enough to provide me with a free license so I could give a quick review of TotalFinder.

Wow, I didn't realize that 'Finder' was so vanilla. It's nice to see open source projects like Chrome, Nautilus Elementary, and Dolphin inspiring Mac developers to borrow features from the best of the best!

I'm actually a bit stunned to see that Finder is so far behind. Windows explorer is not much cop either. Dolphin slaughters them both.

Thom, you are saying you are willing to pay USD 15 just to bring Finder out of the dark ages to be somewhere sadly trailing behind in the dust of some other file managers like Dolphin, and yet you seem to be of the opinion that open source desktop software lacks polish compared to commercial desktop OSes like Mac OSX and Windows 7?

Thom, do try to pay some attention to what is going on! Wake up and smell the coffee!

"Wow, I didn't realize that 'Finder' was so vanilla. It's nice to see open source projects like Chrome, Nautilus Elementary, and Dolphin inspiring Mac developers to borrow features from the best of the best!

I'm actually a bit stunned to see that Finder is so far behind. Windows explorer is not much cop either. "

Finder is a blend of the OpenStep Workspace Manager (from where the shelf, column view and such come from) and Mac OS classic finder (which IIRC did not do "cut" anyway.) It's not "behind the times", it uses a different paradigm for moving files*... wow. It doesn't use ugly tabs.. again - so what? Nothing added by this app is going to change the way I work. I simply reject your reality and substitute my own.

* So how does one move files? A number of ways. All based on Drag and drop. If you drag a file on to a folder, that folder opens (this includes drives on the desktop).. shocking!! You simply drag the file to the correct location - or use the shelf to store the target folder, or use the desktop as an extra step. Or even, and this works on Windows too, open two file windows and drag between them!! This is the way I generally work in Windows as I shun the awful treeview Windows uses in explorer. None of this warrants adding a whole extra level of complication to the UI just to please Windows users.

Drag and drop is a pain in the tucus. Bmoving form one directory to a directory farther away is cumbersome, requiring me to hold a mouse button down for a while. Some old school mac people are used to it because there is no other option, but don't pretend its the best option.

Cut and paste is much easier, as long as you're comfortable with the the idea of a clipboard holding a file. Drag and drop is visually more intuitive, but this isn't 1985 anymore. This is definitely the one mouse button again. Apple refuses to add an option that woudl make things easier today, because it would have confused new users 25 years ago.